College Football Rankings 2016: Updated NCAA Week 8 Standings, Final Poll Review
Brett Rypien threw for 442 yards and three touchdowns on Thursday night to propel No. 14 Boise State to a 28-27 win over Brigham Young, ensuring the Broncos would be the first ranked team in Week 8 to hold on to its lofty position with a win.
Nineteen other teams on the list in the latest Associated Press poll are in action on Saturday. Without a doubt, the headlining game of Week 8 is a battle between undefeated SEC rivals as No. 6 Texas A&M goes on the road to Tuscaloosa to take on No. 1 Alabama.
The Crimson Tide have been the top-ranked team in the nation from the outset, and have held off challenges from then-No. 16 Arkansas and then-No. 9 Tennessee over the past two weeks. As the season churns along, the pressure to stay perfect mounts, as a late loss can have huge implications for the eventual College Football Playoff.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Here are the AP rankings heading into Saturday of Week 8 along with matchup info for each team.
| 1 | Alabama (60) | 7-0 | 1,524 | vs. No. 6 Texas A&M |
| 2 | Ohio State | 6-0 | 1,457 | at Penn State |
| 3 | Michigan (1) | 6-0 | 1,368 | vs. Illinois |
| 4 | Clemson | 7-0 | 1,337 | N/A |
| 5 | Washington | 6-0 | 1,304 | vs. Oregon State |
| 6 | Texas A&M | 6-0 | 1,218 | at No. 1 Alabama |
| 7 | Louisville | 5-1 | 1,168 | vs. North Carolina State |
| 8 | Nebraska | 6-0 | 1,037 | vs. Purdue |
| 9 | Baylor | 6-0 | 1,021 | N/A |
| 10 | Wisconsin | 4-2 | 935 | at Iowa |
| 11 | Houston | 6-1 | 766 | at SMU |
| 12 | West Virginia | 5-0 | 744 | vs. TCU |
| 13 | Florida State | 5-2 | 733 | N/A |
| 14 | Boise State | 6-0 | 694 | W, 28-27 BYU |
| 15 | Florida | 5-1 | 626 | N/A |
| 16 | Oklahoma | 4-2 | 612 | at Texas Tech |
| 17 | Arkansas | 5-2 | 584 | at No. 21 Auburn |
| 18 | Tennessee | 5-2 | 550 | N/A |
| 19 | Utah | 6-1 | 479 | at UCLA |
| 20 | Western Michigan | 7-0 | 285 | vs. Eastern Michigan |
| 21 | Auburn | 4-2 | 277 | vs. No. 17 Arkansas |
| 22 | North Carolina | 5-2 | 254 | at Virginia |
| 23 | Ole Miss | 3-3 | 188 | at No. 25 LSU |
| 24 | Navy | 4-1 | 163 | vs. Memphis |
| 25 | LSU | 4-2 | 123 | vs. No. 23 Ole Miss |
Alabama and Texas A&M may be relatively close in the standings, but few are giving the Aggies any chance of keeping up with their SEC foes. According to Odds Shark, the Crimson Tide are 16.5-point favorites over their opponents, which goes to show just how dominant this team has been this season.
The Crimson Tide are outscoring their opponents 318-104 on the season and have put up 49 points in each of their last two games. Alabama crushed the miracle workers of Tennessee 49-10 in Week 7, thanks to a dominant ground game that picked up steam against Arkansas in the previous week and now looks to be as potent as one would expect from a Nick Saban-coached squad.
True freshman quarterback Jalen Hurts scampered for 132 yards and three scores, while Bo Scarbrough broke through for 109 yards and a score on five carries. Damien Harris and Joshua Jacobs continue to put in workmanlike performances and should feast on an Aggies run defense that ranks 68th in the nation.
The Aggies' opportunistic defense (17 takeaways) will need to come up with some big plays for the underdog to have a chance in this one. Winning the turnover battle should be key, as Texas A&M can put up points in a hurry thanks to the big-play ability of dual-threat quarterback Trevor Knight and running back Trayveon Williams.
It's a big week all-around for the always-powerful SEC, as No. 21 Auburn hosts No. 17 Arkansas and No. 23 Ole Miss heads out on the road to take on No. 25 LSU.
Ole Miss' high-powered offense, led by quarterback Chad Kelly (14 touchdown passes, five interceptions), has a tough task against a Tigers defense that is allowing a mere 14 points per game. If LSU can slow down the Rebels' quick-strike attack, one would imagine that would work in its favor. However, Ole Miss' ability to essentially teleport the ball into the end zone works against its own defense at times.
Ole Miss defensive end John Youngblood explains, per ESPN.com's Greg Ostendorf:
"Sometimes a three-and-out is just as fast as when the offense scores. Some of the drives that they score on, it takes 30, 40, 50 seconds and they’re in the end zone. But it is tough because at the end of the game, I looked up at the clock at Arkansas and they had 40 minutes [of] time of possession to our 20. At the end of the day, we are playing a lot more football than the other team’s defense.
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This could pose a problem, as LSU loves to run the ball, and the less time a defense spends on the field with Derrius Guice and a returning-from-injury Leonard Fournette, the better. If the Bayou Bengals can get Fournette going and get a few big plays from the electrifying Guice, they could send Ole Miss tumbling to a sub-.500 record and out of the rankings.
While the Top 25 is naturally dominated by teams from the Power Five conferences, schools from smaller conferences still find room and often stick. Boise State (of the Mountain West Conference) is perhaps the most notorious example of a mid-conference school setting up shop in the national polls, and Houston (The American) possesses the best ranking, but they aren't the only two in the Top 25.
No. 20 Western Michigan hails from the Mid-American Conference and is 7-0 on the year. These Broncos play rival Eastern Michigan on Saturday and are massive 23.5-point favorites, per Odds Shark. While everyone can focus on the individual players and their accomplishments, Western Michigan's most impressive stat is a team one.
The Broncos have just one turnover on the season: a lost fumble that occurred in a 41-0 drubbing of Akron in Week 7. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Western Michigan is second in the nation with a plus-12 turnover margin, trailing only No. 5 Washington. USA Today's Daniel Uthman has more on how the team preaches ball security:
"Ask college football coaches what statistic they look for first when they comb their box scores after a game, and many say turnover margin. Joining the Broncos among the nation's leaders in that statistic this season are 6-0 Ohio State, 6-0 Washington and 5-1 Troy.
It's also a statistic that can vary widely year to year, variations that can be difficult to explain. But even though a team's turnover performance can be unpredictable, it can be coached.
"We coach it every single day," Broncos coach P.J. Fleck said. "Everybody always looks at these secret potions, like what did you do secretly this year that you didn't do other years? We did the same ball security drill and the same ball disruption drill every day in practice for about 10-12 minutes every single day when we were 0-8, 1-11, we do it the exact same way."
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If the Broncos can keep holding on to the football, they should have no problem holding on to their ranking.
Toward the bottom of the poll, No. 24 Navy has its first chance to prove it belongs in the Top 25 with a home game against Memphis. The Midshipmen went to No. 25 in the AP poll after an upset of Houston in Week 6, but didn't get the opportunity to prove they are bona fides in Week 7 as flooding concerns postponed their game against Eastern Carolina.
Navy's triple-option attack befuddled a Houston defense that still ranks third in the nation in rushing defense despite giving up 306 yards on the ground to the Midshipmen. Memphis' run defense is fairly robust, allowing just 140 yards per game, but it's doing so on a less-encouraging 4.10 yards per carry, per NCAA.com.
Despite the potential for Navy to grind down the Tigers on the ground, Memphis is a two-point favorite over Navy, per Odds Shark, likely owing to a strong offense led by quarterback Riley Ferguson (1,596 passing yards, 12 touchdowns) and tailback Doroland Dorceus (7.2 yards per carry, five touchdowns).
Of course, Navy has already defied the odds in beating Houston and could shake things up in the Top 25 with a win over a 5-1 Memphis squad.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
